HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-09-13-LHRC-min-copyTown of Lexington Human Rights Committee
Meeting Minutes for Wednesday,Sept 13,2023
Conducted in remotely on Zoom
LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT
Christina Lin,Chair (CL);Stephanie Hsu,Vice-Chair (SH);Salvador Jaramillo (SJ);Tanya Gisolfi (TG);
Mona D.Roy (MDR);Amber Iqbal (AI);Lieutenant Colleen Dunbar -Town of Lexington Police (CD);
Melissa Interess -Town of Lexington,Human Services (MI)
Liaisons:Eileeen Jay (EJ),Hemali Shah (HS)
The minutes recorded by Christina Lin,LHRC Chair
1.Minutes Approval
a.August 23,2023 meeting minutes approved by vote 6-0-2 (TG and MI abstain)
2.Chair Report &Updates
a.PIR (program improvement request)-SH and CL are working on submitting a PIR
for Town funding for the LHRC for FY25
b.Our full statement on Serious Talks is on our LHRC website (thank you Sharon
Gunda)and an abridged version was read at the School Committee meeting.
LexObserver -referenced the link to the statement in a follow up article.
c.We can have a table and brochures at the Oct 8 -Indigenous Peoples’Day
Celebration.AI and SH will also attend the event.
d.Goals training session with Jon Wortmann -The Town hired a leadership trainer
who is working with the Select Board and the Town.Lexington has an extremely
engaged citizenry.A lot of committees (apparently 70+)and we also have the
longest Select Board meetings of any town in Massachusetts.Mr.Wortmann
provided a goal training session to help us articulate our goals in a manner that is
easy to comprehend,memorable and relatable.It was really helpful and perfect
timing for today’s meeting.We learned about what other committees were doing.It
was a very good session.We are asked to submit our goals through Cathy Severance
and Jon Wortmann will be collating them.
e.There is an Interfaith/Intercommunity Workgroup formed to address antisemitism.
Stephanie was connected to them through the antisemitic drawing at Cary Library’s
Teen room at the end of last school year.The meeting was held at Pilgrim Church
and drew from people in Belmont and Arlington as well and also across faith and
non-faith groups.They are working on building the group,sharing knowledge and
ideas and developing ideas mostly around confronting anti semitism.
3.Goal Setting for FY23/24 and longer term goals
a.No clerk was appointed
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b.Goal setting Link:LHRC Goal Setting Presentation for Sept2023
GOAL:Increase resilience of the community against divisive rhetoric and ideology
●Build capacity for Civil Dialogue Discourse (effective communication to understand
each other to build human connections,building/maintaining trust):
○Creating a shared vocabulary -Start with understanding Human Rights and Civil Rights.This will
help us understand what the LHRC does and hopefully,help the community know what their rights
are.
○Building skills -Active bystander training -how to stay in the conversation when things get heated.
How to hear/listen to each other.
●Increase the community’s sense of belonging
○Building a stronger sense of community -Programming on seeing that we have more in common than not :CPA
(community preservation committee)-major discussions about how much money the town should be spending
on recreation,historical renov.,affordable housing.
○Understanding across cultures and differences in identity-
■Understanding Indigenous perspectives on relationship with land in the context of current
challenges with housing
■others?
○Understanding what it means to be inclusive.
■Collaboration with committees working to amplify non-traditional voices
c.Comments on the goals shown above are:
i.Remove “ideology”-the term is too confusing and prone to differing and
triggering interpretations
ii.Change ‘Discourse’to “Dialogue”to promote more two-way conversation
iii.A comment that Active Bystander training,while valuable and important,is
not address the goal of promoting dialogue.
d.Ideas shared by committee members:
i.Training for a basic level of understanding Human and Civil rights would be
valuable,not only to the community,but also to committee members.Having
terminology and definitions aligned across the community provides a basis for
effective communication not bogged down by differing assumptions that can
hamper communication on the work of the LHRC,understanding of human
and civil rights.
ii.Seeking non-traditional voices and supporting ‘we all belong.’-Those who
feel their perspectives are non-traditional or less popular to the majority in
Lexington often do not feel they belong and are not listened to.We are left
with a skewed conversation and unable to tap into different ideas and
experiences that may lead to different choices.The LHRC should invest more
efforts to reach out to these groups as part of the effort to make Lexington a
place where all people can feel they belong.Non-traditional voices include:
age -youth,political differences,differences in values,etc.
iii.Interest in expanding outreach to youth who are often not empowered to be
part of the community conversation.There are some bystander programs in
LPS,but not all students can participate and there is a concern that the
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students selected to these programs do not always represent a true
cross-section of the student population.How does LPS ensure some of the
quieter students who may also need these programs are noticed and
considered?SH,SJ and AI will consider intergenerational engagement with
focus on youth oriented engagement offline.
4.Unexpected Items Not Reasonably Anticipated in Advance
a.National week without driving -Susan Barrett is wondering if our committee would
be interested in promoting this effort.Also,next Wed evening will be the Ad Hoc
Transportation Advisory Committee's public forum to learn about the future of
Lexpress.
b.The committee thanked Tanya Gisolfi for her 6 years of service on the LHRC.last
month on the LHRC.SJ personally thanked TG for her mentorship and support.
c.The chair asked committee members to see if there were proposed articles for
upcoming Special Town Meeting that the LHRC should review.
5.Meeting adjourned at 10:50AM
6.Next Meeting is Wednesday,Oct 10,2023 at 8:45AM
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